Raman Roy: Pathbreaker Award 2002

45-year-old Raman Roy is widely regarded as the pioneer and guru of the

IT-enabled services business in India, having played a pivotal role in proving

the country’s stature as a locale for remote processing. He has successfully

delivered servicing solutions from India and has led the Indian operations of

the two top players in this arena–GE Capital and American Express. In the

process, he has been instrumental in creating over 20,000 jobs in India

The Third Coming…



As president and CEO, Wipro Spectramind, Raman Roy is responsible for the

company’s strategic direction and is the key driving force of the company’s

mission and business philosophy. 45-year-old Roy is widely regarded as the

pioneer and "guru" of the IT-enabled services business out of India,

having played a pivotal role in proving India as a locale for remote processing.

He has successfully delivered servicing solutions from India. He has led the

Indian initiatives of two of the largest players in this arena in India–GE

Capital and American Express–and has been associated with the creation of over

10,000 jobs in India to service the needs of organizations in USA, Europe,

Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia.

Prior to Spectramind, Roy was associated with GE Capital where he led the

setting up of their flagship remote processing center. The center presently

employs over 7,500 local Indian employees. Roy was responsible for the

conceptualization and implementation of the initiatives including establishing

new global service businesses from India, which focussed on providing

comprehensive high value add process and service solutions to international

clients. He also played a key role in the structuring and setting up processing

capabilities for GE Capital’s joint ventures with Mastech USA and State Bank

of India–both of which involved the setting up of processing capabilities in

India.

Before his successful stint with GE Capital, Roy was the business leader of

accounting operations at American Express and played a played a key role in

setting up a global centralized accounting facility in India catering to Europe,

USA and the Japan Pacific Asia Australia region. The center presently employs

over 1,000 Indians and offers all aspects of accounting services to American

Express offices in USA, Europe, Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia. Roy’s

contribution included evolving the strategy, designing and development of the

‘centralized’ center of excellence.

Raman is a chartered accountant from India and a chartered management

accountant from the UK. He is also a member of Nasscom and the CII Council of

ITeS.

If the world is making telephone calls to India today–calls that help make

careers and profits, and calls that have generated employment for nearly 200,000

people so far–there’s one man who has a lot to do with it. The frontrunner

of the IT-enabled services revolution in India, he has played a pivotal role in

selling and establishing the country’s stature as a locale for remote

processing. It is no surprise then, that the two largest companies in the

IT-enabled services segment, American Express and GE Caps, grew to their present

stature under him. The man to whom India owes all this, as well as this year’s

runaway ITeS growth, is Raman Roy.

But ask Roy–considered the ‘Indian Call Center Guru’–about the

beginnings, and he brushes it aside as a "mishap". "This entire

industry called ITeS happened by accident–with companies discovering that the

servicing capabilities that they had were far more valuable than they had

thought–for it is not the price, but quality that matters in any kind of

service. Around this time, while a lot of companies were exporting IT

professionals, some discovered non-IT talent but realized that this was not

exportable. This is where technology played a role, where people saw the

availability of technology that made distances irrelevant," says Roy. Amex

was among the first to see and pan on to the trend. "A lot of people said

AmEx had gone loony.

But the brave see what no one else does, and AmEx had that ability. It was a

great experience to work with Amex. I was part of the India team and just came

in with some ideas. It was the success of AmEx that made GE look at India as an

option."

Starting his career with Tata Consultancy Sevices in the eighties, young Roy

set up the financial services arm of Shivram Fibers. His tryst with BPO destiny

began when he joined American Express in 1984 and helped set up its automation

services. At Amex, Roy ran up the rungs of authority, notching up several firsts

for the global giant–he launched its Indian rupee card, US dollar card and

corporate card. Another milestone was his stint as head of operations in

technology at Amex.

Amex’s runaway success got American corporate giant General Electric to

look at India–and today, it is no surprise that GE asked Roy to spearhead its

international service as CEO. The road was tough, and as Roy himself admits, he

thought "he had made a mistake in joining GE". But the initial hiccups

only got him to think and work harder and smarter… In his own words–"We

managed to get some great results, but it was mostly because of the fabulous

company called GE." But GE’s was a captive unit–and when numerous

clients kept asking for a wider range of services, the entrepreneur in Roy

finally decided to take a closer look at the VCs lining up at his door. Soon

after, Spectramind eServices was born… the rest is recent history. Wipro

bought a major stake in Spectramind for a fantastic price–more than the splash

the sale made, it brought new credibility to a burgeoning but nascent industry.

An affirmation of Roy’s standing as an astute helmsman–he stays on to head

Wipro Spectramind.

And there’s a clear mission there, as Roy explains–"The objective is

to take Wipro Spectramind to where it deserves to be–as one of the established

global players in this space. India is a sleeping lion. I am proud to be an

Indian and I am proud to operate in the country. We will get there…"

An entrepreneur is born



Roy started Spectramind eServices without a single customer–"…with

only a dream and VC funding". "We wanted to make a mark, create

something that was global and unique. The idea was not to be India-focussed, and

creating a global play excited us. People told me that I was mad to get a

building this big, and that it would never work. Today, the same people come and

tell me that I had great vision! I feel we were lucky–we had investors who

believed in us," says Roy. Post-acquisition, Wipro now owns 93% of Wipro

Spectramind. And while many wonder whether the sellout is just a precursor to

the entrepreneur in Roy taking off for fresher ventures, he rubbishes the idea.

"The sellout to Wipro is not the end, it is just a pit-stop. The journey

ahead remains a long one, and we are far from where we want to be. Being a part

of Wipro is an accelerator to the end objective–a huge accelerator."

And that ‘end objective’ he talks of is to be a global player in the BPO

space. "Today, we have 3,000 employees across four locations. And numbers

of around 3,000-4,000 mark the entry into the ‘global club’–so we have

just entered that club. There’s a long way to go ahead to make a mark, and we

are on track…" So does he consider himself successful? "Success?

What’s success–corporate achievements and financial stability? Not for me…

The way I look at success, it is my grandchild sitting on my knee, with me

telling him–‘This giant industry that you see today, your grandfather helped

create a part of it’."

Team DQ

'Voice is Sexy: People Talk About it and Think it’s All About Call Centers'

Raman Roy, president and CEO, Wipro Spectramind

l What is the

path that states like West Bengal and Rajasthan, which have announced sops for

the industry and rolled out big plans for ITeS but have yet to sell themselves

on the infrastructure front, should follow to make it work?



When we went to Hyderabad, nothing worked there. When we went to Mumbai,

while some others had been successful, we still had to be up and running in 59

days. Our only customer then came to us and said you just committed be running

two months, and it looks tough… I remember telling him what I tell you–it is

knowing what requires to be done and putting your head down to doing it that

makes things work. We lobbied hard to change regulations. What these states need

is to have people come in and do it. The laws have to support it. Earlier, it

was impossible to have an IPLC terminate at a PSTN. I was a lone warrior, going

around, believing that the one permission I needed would happen… but it just

wouldn’t. Finally, some bureaucrat friends told me how to go about it. And it

happened. The same thing will happen in West Bengal and Rajasthan, as well. Give

it time…

Raman Roy, president and CEO, Wipro Spetramind

l Going

forward, what is the outlook for the ITeS/BPO space?



I would like to begin the answer by dispelling a myth–even today, it is

not voice that makes up the industry; that it does is just a creation of the

media. If you analyze Nasscom numbers, most of the 200,000 people working in

this space are non-voice. Voice is sexy, so people talk about it and think it’s

all about call centers. As for the future, the possibilities are immense, and

even the Nasscom estimates of $24 billion by 2008 are small–that’s just 4%

of the global ITeS market.

On the other side, let’s dispel another myth–that we are an IT

superpower. What superpower? We have low single-digit levels in terms of

marketshare worldwide. That is not a superpower any which way you look at it–regardless

of the growth numbers we enjoy. And be warned, those numbers could be in trouble–of

the $24-billion that Nasscom is targeting, $3 billion is accounting. How? Not a

single varsity teaches US GAAP. Where are we making fundamental changes in the

supply? If there are going to be 1 million people by 2008, we are going to grow

five-fold in the next five years. Where are those people going to come from? It

is being left to the industry to do so, and we are doing it. We will take a

great raw material and do it, but we are competing with the Philippines and

China, where there are great people. We are all being disadvantaged.

l What makes a

better fit–for IT companies to make the switch to ITeS by gathering domain

expertise, or for domain specific companies to open up their own call centers?

Pfizer, for instance, has entered the fray…



The jury’s still out on that. But take my word for it–IT companies

setting up BPO operations is like IT companies making cars, bread, butter...

They could then give Amul a challenge. That is what their opening BPO operations

means. They want to run a restaurant without cooking themselves, and without

hiring a cook.

As for BPO players, we are all out killing each other by swiping workforces,

and not increasing the pool. At Wipro Spectramind, we have a policy where we do

not "raid" the competition. Give it time–the boys will be separated

from the men, and we hope to be among the men.

l GE Caps,

American Express, Spectramind… a series of setting up from scratch and then

moving on. What comes next for Raman Roy, especially as this venture has been

sold off to Wipro?



To take Spectramind where it deserves to be–a global player in this space.

India is a sleeping lion. I am proud to be an Indian and I am proud to operate

in the country. Despite all of that, I will crib within the country, but

outside, I will justify to the customers why all the paperwork etc need to be

done. People ask me to describe success. It is my grandchild sitting on my knee

and I tell him this giant industry that you see today, your grandfather helped

create parts of it.